Department of Psychology, College of Public Health and Health, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Health, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2022 Aug 29;377(1858):20210048. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0048. Epub 2022 Jul 11.
The roles of oxytocin (OT) and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) as crucial modulators of social cognition and related behaviours have been extensively addressed in the literature. The involvement of these neuropeptides in social cognition in ageing, however, and a potential mediating effect of basic cognitive capacities on this link, are not well understood. To fill these research gaps, this study assessed associations of plasma OT and AVP levels with dynamic emotion identification accuracy in generally healthy older men (aged 55-95 years) and probed the underlying roles of crystallized and fluid cognition in these associations. Higher plasma OT levels were associated with lower accuracy in dynamic emotion identification, with this negative relationship fully mediated by cognition. For plasma AVP levels, in contrast, there was no association with dynamic emotion identification accuracy. Integrated within existing theoretical accounts, results from this study advance understanding of the neuropeptide-social cognition link in ageing and support basic cognitive capacities as mediators in this association. This article is part of the theme issue 'Interplays between oxytocin and other neuromodulators in shaping complex social behaviours'.
神经肽催产素（OT）和精氨酸加压素（AVP）作为社会认知和相关行为的关键调节剂的作用在文献中得到了广泛的研究。然而，这些神经肽在衰老中的社会认知中的作用，以及基本认知能力对这种联系的潜在中介作用，还不是很清楚。为了填补这些研究空白，本研究评估了血浆 OT 和 AVP 水平与一般健康老年男性（55-95 岁）动态情绪识别准确性的关联，并探讨了这些关联中结晶和流体认知的潜在作用。较高的血浆 OT 水平与动态情绪识别的准确性较低有关，这种负相关关系完全由认知介导。相比之下，对于血浆 AVP 水平，与动态情绪识别准确性没有关联。综合现有理论观点，本研究的结果增进了对衰老中神经肽-社会认知联系的理解，并支持基本认知能力作为这种关联的中介。本文是主题为“催产素与其他神经调质在塑造复杂社会行为中的相互作用”的一部分。
